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Biology

Physiology

Dream World Ninetales

Ninetales is a fox-like Pokémon that possesses nine tails, hence its name. Resembling the nine-tailed kitsune fox of Japanese folklore, they are mainly covered in sleek, luxurious golden-white fur, while the tips of their nine tails are orange. On top of their head is a large tuft of hair, similar to its pre-evolved form though much more unruly and spiky. It has sinister red eyes which give it the ability to psychically control the minds of people and Pokémon. Its ears are pointed and distinctly fox-like, and it has slender legs with three-toed paws and no visible claws.

Additionally, there are no gender differences between male and female Ninetales. The shiny version of Ninetales has silver-gray fur instead of its usual light cream fur, and its tail is tipped in blue.

Special abilities

All Ninetales have the abilityFlash Fire, which powers up its Fire-type moves if it is hit by a fire-type attack. It also keeps it from getting damaged by fire attacks. This does not apply to Dream World Ninetails, who instead possess the ability Drought, creating a permanent Sunny effect for the duration of the battle or until another weather-altering move or ability is used.

Trivia

Ninetales is based on the legendary Kyuubi no Kitsune (九尾の狐 nine-tailed fox) of Japanese folklore. When a Kitsune gains its ninth tail, its fur changes from the dark red of a fox to white or golden, hence the color change for the evolution.

Ninetales in the Game Boy Advance games didn't have the orange coloring on the tip of its tails.

Ninetales' box sprite does not have the orange coloring on the tips of its tails.

In the Game Boy Advance games, shiny Ninetales' didn't have blue coloring on the tip of its tails, like its normal coloring.

Ninetales is often misspelled as "Ninetails" for the number of tails it possessed. This misspelling is also on the trading cards, and in the Trading Card Game video game adaptation for Game Boy Color.

In Pokémon Mystery Dungeons Blue and Red, the Gengar was originally a human that grabbed one of Ninetales' tails and was cursed into the form of a Gengar. Also the Gengar, before it turned into Gengar, had abandoned its Gardevoir, but the Gardevoir had no grudge against him, and it loved its trainer enough to protect it from Ninetales' fury.

Origins

Ninetales appears to be based on a fox, more speficically the mystical kitsune creature of Japanese folklore.